Military Wellness Collective

EP 16: Peace Over Hurry: Let Light Break the Noise

• Military Wellness Collective

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The season is loud, but the message is simple: a Savior has come. We gather with Brian and Kelly O’Day and Joshua and Brittany Brown to explore how Advent can turn everyday December moments into warm, natural conversations about Jesus—without pressure, scripts, or culture-war skirmishes. Instead of scolding the noise, we learn to listen for the signal: carols with gospel-rich lyrics, candles and lights that point to John 1, a manger on a lawn, and even a calendar counting years from the birth of Christ.

We ground everything in Scripture. Luke 2’s songs declare a clear claim—Messiah and Lord—while Matthew 1 names Him Emmanuel, God with us. John’s prologue calls Jesus the true Light who shines in the darkness. Then Romans 10 asks the question that frames the month: how will they believe if they do not hear? From there we move into practice. We share simple “pebble in the shoe” questions to spark reflection, show how Hark the Herald Angels Sing or O Holy Night can open doors, and walk through ways to disciple kids with traditions like nighttime light drives that connect beauty to truth.

Hurry is the enemy of love, so we get tactical about slowing down: shop early if you can, prune the calendar, and let “no, thank you” be a complete sentence. That margin makes room for people—inviting neighbors to a candlelight service, volunteering at local shelters, or sharing cocoa after church. Many who avoid church year-round will come at Christmas, and familiar carols can soften guarded hearts. We model a kind, curious tone that wins trust, not arguments, bridging from cultural Christmas to the true joy of Christ’s incarnation.

If you’re looking for clear steps, better questions, and a calmer spirit to carry real hope into your circles, this conversation is your map. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs peace this month, and leave a review to help others find the show. Which tradition will you turn into a gospel bridge this year?

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SPEAKER_02:

All right, guys, we are back with another episode. My name is Brian O'Day, and I will be your host today. I'm joined by Kelly O'Day, my wife, and our good friends Joshua and Brittany Brown.

SPEAKER_03:

Hello.

SPEAKER_02:

And Merry Christmas. Happy Thanksgiving again. And we're gonna start looking towards Christmas. It is now December. We are in the Advent season. Anyone know what that word Advent means?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

What's it mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Coming.

SPEAKER_02:

Coming, right? So we are preparing for the coming of the Lord Jesus. And what we want to talk about in today's episode is the reality that we have just as Christians, we have this amazing opportunity during this season to bridge conversations into the gospel, bridge conversations into telling people the good news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. We're talking about Jesus Christ coming into the world, right? And so why in the world would we do that? How might we do something like that? Are there any like passages that come to mind as you guys think about sharing the gospel andor using the Christmas story to share the gospel?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, there's a lot of them. It's like the whole Bible.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Yeah. It's all pointing to the coming of Jesus.

SPEAKER_04:

It is all coming to the yeah, it's all pointing to that. But yeah, there's a few at the beginning of the gospels. Specifically, I I enjoy Luke too. That gives a very good description and breakdown of the coming Christ and how he's born and all of the circumstances that are surrounding that. I don't have it in front of me though, if someone wants to read a portion of the case.

SPEAKER_02:

So in Luke, in Luke's gospel account, you get these songs about Jesus' arrival, and they are putting it, they are putting the birth of Jesus into the storyline of the entire scripture. And so you get Mary's song, sometimes called the Magnificant. You get you get Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. He gives this song, and then maybe more well-known is the angels that are declaring that Christ has been born. And I'll just read that one. This is Luke chapter 2 and verse 14. The angels, the multitude of the heavenly host, praise God, and they are saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. So they're not just like, it's not just that Jesus was born, and then later on in life we find out that he's the Messiah, he's the savior of the world. Just during his birth story, during the narrative of his miraculous conception, during everything, it's constantly pointing to this is the Messiah, this is the savior of the world.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Yeah. And it's not just believers who believed that was happening too. If we look at the circumstances around what's happening there, you have the ruler of the area at the time freaking out because he's thinking this new Messiah is going to come and take his job. So he orders the murder of all these little innocent babies to try to get Jesus.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Because the wise men say, Where's the king of the Jews? This baby has been born and he's king of the Jews. And Herod's like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm the king. What are you talking about? And we have occupied the Jews, right? And so there's a lot of that going on. So the initial story and the way the gospel writers tell us the story of the birth is teaching us that Jesus is the savior, Jesus is the Messiah. So what is our responsibility as present-day Christians to declare this good news to people?

SPEAKER_00:

I think in our own heart to just remember that and remind ourselves of that. It's just to me, it's interesting, and I'm prone to it every single year to fall into the busyness or you know, just stress inducing of like the Christmas parties, events that people have to buy for, the money, the you know, just all that that can take away from what it's all about. And so just making space to remember that and remind myself, like being in the word and yeah, even taking a break from maybe reading something else, like we talked about in another episode of doing an advent study.

SPEAKER_02:

So maybe we're early enough in the shopping season. One thing that you do is you shop very early.

SPEAKER_00:

Which a lot of people find odd, but I do it to help with the stress of being in December. I want to take away some of my distractions, and uh that is one of my distractions is the list or I do love to to give and to you know just show people that I love them with with gifts. I don't think that's a bad thing. And so but I just try to do it early. So my goal is always to be done by December first.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Yeah, and so it doesn't always have trying to get done early. Do your shopping early so that it's not Christmas Eve like some of us are prone to do from time to time, but get it done early so that you can then focus and have space for some of these conversations. Good. So what what passages tell me as a Christian that I should be like telling people about Jesus?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, obviously, Matthew 28, the Great Commission tells us that we are to go. I think Mark 16, 15, he repeats it again. Go to all the world, telecreation. Romans, I love Romans 10. I'm gonna pull it up here. Romans 10, 14. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in whom in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. I we're to tell it. Like we can't just expect people are gonna know it. We need to be speaking the truth, and this is a great time of year to do so.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, keep that passage right in front of you. So I love how it talks about it starts with these questions. How will people know? How will people know if no one tells them? And so if you're a Christian and you find yourself surrounded by people who are not yet Christians, you can assume that they're not going to know unless you tell them.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And right now they're seeing it everywhere. Whether they, if they don't believe in him and they're going Christmas shopping, like Kelly just mentioned, or doing all these things, they're hearing the Christmas songs play. And and I've been in many stores where Joy to the World or Hark the Herald Angels sing, like those are playing right along next to Kelly Clarkson and Michael Bouble. I don't even know if I say that right. You know, it's next to those.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, and even some of those popular artists will do very Christian Christmas songs. They may do, you know, songs about chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but they may also do Hark the Herald Angels Sing. So let's let's pull that thread for a second. So so Hark the Herald Angels sing, glory to the newborn king, right? Natural gospel connection. So music is a is a big one when we hear these Christmas songs. Any others that are just like naturally there are gospel phrases in the Christmas songs to get us to gospel conversations.

SPEAKER_01:

My favorite is Ocome Ocum Emanuel. And I feel like that is played everywhere because I think at Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, major artists have covered that song. We're talking about Emmanuel, God with us. Like it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Which Matthew, early on in the book of Matthew, I'm pretty sure it's at the end of Matthew chapter one. Matthew says, This is Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. And so that's a perfect time to jump in and and point people to scripture that Emmanuel is God with us. Cool. Kelly, do you have one? Christian song or silent night.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, O Holy Night. Oh, holy night. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

That's always my favorite.

SPEAKER_00:

I like O Holy Night.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, everybody, like, and some like really popular recording artists have done that song. And so, like, there is some really gospel rich lyrics in in that song. Good. So music, what else, what else are we kind of bumping into in this month that are just natural bridges into gospel conversations besides the music?

SPEAKER_04:

There's literally manger scenes all over the place.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

In the country we're in, anyway. Right. Yeah. I mean, they're they're biblically inaccurate, but they're still there. Like so many people get aggravated about the the historical portions of it and and and whatnot, and they they freak out about it. Instead of seeing that this is a perfect opportunity for a natural conversation of who Jesus is and seeing it all over the place.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

There's a book I like to reference. I can't remember the author, though. It's called Tactics, and he talks about leaving a pebble in someone's shoe. So of of like a question or something to think about of like who Jesus is, so that when they leave the conversation, it's constantly with them. So they're thinking about it. In this season and in this time, I mean, you can point to almost anything, and it's a natural jump into a Christian conversation, a gospel conversation.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

So yeah, if you're in Target and there's a manger scene all over the place, or like if you're walking down the street, there's people putting up lights and there's one big star up, or like, or even a tree with a star on top of it, or a manger scene with the lit up in someone's yard. They're literally all over the place. And it it's a very simple question. What does that mean? Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I wonder what that means. I wonder what that's about. Do you know what that's about? Right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04:

Why do they have this this you know barn in their front yard during this time of year? Right. With for some reason three wise men standing next to it, and then Joseph and Mary, and then this little baby. Like, who is that? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_02:

Good. Good. What other bridges into gospel conversations do we have?

SPEAKER_01:

I love Christmas lights. And a way that we used Christ Christmas lights in our home to disciple our children, because they're little people that need to hear the gospel too when they were younger, is we looked, we would drive and look at Christmas lights, and we had a tradition that we we still do this even though they're adults. We put on pajamas, we get in our car, and I make hot chocolate for everybody, and we have candy canes, and we go drive around, look at lights and our Christmas pajamas. But when the kids were little, we would use that it's dark and the lights are lit. And we would talk about how Christ came as the light of the world, breaking through the darkness to set captives free. And that's just been something that's been dear to our hearts. And it and it's just beautiful to go look at them and we just talk about Jesus being the light of the world. So with our kids, that was something we did, or if we held Christmas parties, you know, just different things where you can have a prayer or a gospel message. I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Christmas lights, candles are also kind of big as well. So the apostle John does his, you know, launching into the birth of Jesus very different than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and because John's gospel is very different than those three. And he launches in with this in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then in John chapter one, verse five, he says, the light, still talking about Jesus, shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And so this Jesus being called the light of the world, like this symbology is literally everywhere all the time. We just have to see it and draw people's attention to it and use those opportunities to speak into it.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, something as simple as this may not be the December 25th Christmas like linkage, but what year is it?

SPEAKER_02:

Right now? Yeah. It's 2025. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So why is that?

SPEAKER_02:

Why is it 2025?

SPEAKER_04:

Why is it not five? What happened to the two years? Yeah. Right. Yeah. So right after Christmas, and we go into this New Year celebration. Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And that's this, oh, 2026 is right around the corner. Yeah, why is it 2026? Right. What happened that many years ago that made them start the time frame over?

SPEAKER_02:

And we'll ignore that we missed by a few years, but whatever, yes. Yes. The reason we start the Roman calendar at you know, zero was we were trying to hit the birth of Jesus. Yeah, that's good. That's a great of that one. So I think another one I want to talk about Christmas wars a little bit. I think hopefully that's like hopefully that's waning. It was kind of big, I don't know, five, six years ago.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But here's the way I kind of work through that. And what I'm talking about is some Christians get really angry that non-Christian things are kind of hijacking this like Christian holiday of the birth of Christ. Just historically, that's not all that accurate. But I I would just go at it a little bit more shrewdly, you know, wise as serpents, innocent of as doves. In my mind, we're celebrating two different holidays that happen to have the same name. Okay. So holiday, one holiday is called Christmas. And I think of some fairy tale creatures that are involved in that holiday. And I think about sleigh rides, and I sing songs like Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman and Here Comes Santa Claus and all those types of things, and hot chocolate and all that kind of stuff, right? That's one holiday, and it's called Christmas in our culture. There's another holiday that we call Christmas in our culture, and it is about the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity. His name is Jesus, he's the savior of the world, he's the king, he is the savior, he is the one that we should surrender our lives to. We also call that one Christmas. And to me, like, how can I bridge from the one holiday into the other holiday? And I don't think getting bent out of shape on people saying the word holiday instead of the word Christmas and getting angry at people selling manger scenes right next to where they're selling Frosty the Snowman. Like, I just don't think you getting angry about that and making a big fuss about that is going to be helpful. Instead, why don't you just draw the attention to the manger scene? Why don't you draw the attention to the light of the world? Why don't you draw the attention to those things in winsome ways?

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. It reminds me of our Thanksgiving episode. Like, don't be grumbling and complaining about things. Like instead, in all these circumstances, rejoice, give thanks, like use those things to have conversations with people that you care about and you love. I I just listened to this thing by Paul Tripp on formal theology and how angry we can get because we just want to hold so tightly to like, well, this is just this is how it is. And it's like, well, but why can't we just love people where they're at and bring them along? So I think that's a really good point to make, Bray.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I don't remember how long ago it was, but I think we were in either Target. I think we were in Target. And we were getting we're in the checkout line. And at the time, I think these wars that you were just talking about were kind of really ugly at the time. And some different stores and departments were trying to do different things. And so the person behind the counter was essentially trained to say happy holidays or whatever the case is, like something generic and general. And this person in front of us was checking out, and he responded with like, oh mer no, it's Merry Christmas. And he and he like got all grumbly and irritated about it to this poor young girl who's just she's just trying to do her job. Like, and she's saying happy holidays with a smile on her face. Like you could say Merry Christmas back with a smile on your face, but the second you start grumbling and start getting irritated about it. It's not merry anymore. It's not the help point. It's not bringing that person to Christ. It's it's creating a bigger divide. Not that you can get a bigger divide. I don't want to make that a theological statement. What I'm saying though is like that person is not going to be compelled to come to Christianity.

SPEAKER_01:

You just put a stumbling block in your head. Yeah, exactly. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

If all you're doing is grumbling and irritated about all these things, it's it's ridiculous. So I why we can't like break out of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it starts in our heart of just like us really finding that joy in what Christmas means and sharing that joy with others and seeing that opportunity to share that in those times.

SPEAKER_02:

Which even the origin of the word holiday is holy day, set apart day for worship. And so just like be clever in finding ways to work Jesus into things. Don't find, don't be clever in finding ways to complain and be angry. Yeah, that's more just litmus test on yourself, not on others. I I think that passage from Romans 10 that Britney looked at earlier, like, how will they know if no one tells them? And so definitely keep that in mind throughout this season. What else can we be doing to to bring people in to what's going on in the the more full holiday, which is the incarnation of Jesus?

SPEAKER_01:

We can ruthlessly eliminate hurry as why am I you know who it is. Why am I? Well, but he didn't say it. He it's a quote from Dallas Wheeler. Dallas Willer. Uh all of his people he mentored, he would say that too. And it just makes me think of what Kelly was talking about getting stuff done early. People are drawn to peaceful people because most people are really stressed out, busy, unhappy. And if we as Christians could follow Jesus, who's not running around with his hair on fire, he was walking places and look at what the holiday actually is. I think that is a way that people will observe and will ask you questions about it. Like you seem like you're not stressed, but it's the crazy holiday season. If I hear so many moms, especially in the military community, say, I just got to get through. I just got to get through it. And I just want to encourage you, you're gonna get through it because it's gonna come to an end. You're gonna make it through the holiday season. But what are you gonna look back on? Like we have a 21, 20-year-old and a 17-year-old, and those years could be. Yes, it I'm that old mom now saying, it goes so fast, it goes so fast. You want to enjoy that season. So if I could encourage you to ruthlessly eliminate the hurry, whittle down your schedule, invite people in to have warm drinks and to share the gospel, I think we it would do us all well.

SPEAKER_00:

I think too, like in slowing down, I I always think about just the people that this season is hard for them for many different reasons. Yeah, maybe they're just going through hard time. Maybe this is the first Christmas without a loved one. And the whole meaning of Christmas is you know, light in the darkness. Like this is this speaks to them. And so it's just like a great opportunity to share the gospel and talk about the real meaning and how that can yeah, when we're hurried, we don't make space for people.

SPEAKER_01:

We're self-centered, self-edged.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we're we're in the south-ish. Some people would say we're in the deep south, some people would say we're we're in like the mid-south, right? And people find time for people around here that are from the south. I mean, there's been many times we've been in the grocery store and run into somebody, or even just a neighbor, or an acquaintance, and it turns into a full-blown conversation in the middle of the aisle, right? Oh, what's going on? Yellow, and there's just this like constant like I love it. Because they make time for people, nobody's hurried for for many things. Titus actually doesn't actually like going to the store with Britney anymore because she inevitably runs into somebody and they end up talking forever. And she he's just like, he's a little man. He's like, we just need to get what we needed to get and get out of the store. But those conversations, it seems as though the more we get into the holidays, the more people get busy, the less time we have for people. And we actually that that aspect of just talking to somebody gets gets pulled away and we fill it with, oh no, I need to go to and fro to get the lights up, and I need to go do this, I need to go do that, I need to go get those gifts, I need to go get that dinner meal thing. There's so many more things that end up being put on the calendar that we make less time for people, which is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.

SPEAKER_02:

And so I I I want to just give a couple practical things of how we can do that. All right, because we're we're still a little ethereal right now. Oh, yeah. So a couple practical things. Step one, I mean, you've got to learn how to say no. Just as an adult, you have to learn how to say no. You're gonna be offered to do more stuff, most likely, in the next month than you have time to do. And so at some point, you've got to learn how to say no to be nice and say, yeah, we're not gonna be able to do that. That's a complete sentence. You don't have to explain what you have going on. You don't have to give some treatise on the fact that you're gonna spend more family time. Like, you can just say no.

SPEAKER_04:

No is a complete sentence.

SPEAKER_02:

No is a no, thank you. Thank you, is a nice complete sentence. And so also, like, if there's things that can wait till the new year, just be like, man, that's great. Let's uh let's let's talk about that in the new year. Let's re-reconnect on that in the new year. Half of that stuff will go away. And so just punt as much as you possibly can to the new year so you can slow down. Shop early, as Kelly said, learn how to say no to stuff that does not align with what you're trying to do in this season, and then punt as much as possible to the new year.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's I think another practical thing is this is a time when people like shelters and other areas are looking for more volunteers uh in our areas and military towns. We call it mass exodus, right? Like lots of people leave. So there are needs. Like, where can you and a couple friends get together and go meet those needs and use that as like a way to share the gospel? Like sacrifice your time in some meaningful ways. I know we just talked about cutting things and saying no, but we have to do that in order to say yes to some things that actually matter to the important things, not just the urgent things that you can put off to live.

SPEAKER_02:

Part of the what you can do is put those things on your calendar early, like now, this first week of December, put some of that stuff on your calendar so it might be easier to say no to other things, like no, I can't, I've got a thing. And you can explain that thing or not explain that thing, but or invite them to come to this. Or invite them to come with it. Speaking of inviting, Joshua, you're a pastor of a church. Are y'all doing like do you are you doing like a different sermon series during the Christmas time?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, actually, we're continuing our study through the book of Acts. But because Christmas falls in the middle of the week, we're doing a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. Yeah. So that's something that's a little bit out of the norm for our normal appetite of diving into the word. So we're we're starting to encourage people to invite people to that as well. Because there's there's a lot of people out there that will not dawn the doors of a church all year long.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

But Christmas comes around, and for some reason they're excited to come to a candlelight service, excited to come to church for a service because they know that's what it's all about. Right. Like they in their heart of hearts, they're they just are groaning for something real and spiritual and wonderful and beautiful and what God has done for us. They just don't fully understand it yet. So they're willing to come during that time. So yeah, inviting people to that for Christmas Eve is is something we're doing.

SPEAKER_02:

And will your church in the weeks, in the next few weeks, will you be singing like some traditional Christmas carols that people might know? Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. So it's a great time of the year to invite people to church. So some of those special things, oh, candlelight service, there's some nostalgia there potentially, and so people are more apt to come to that. There we're singing songs that they might know. Like people are more apt to respond to a church invitation at this time of year than maybe other times of the year. So invite people to church, invite people into events that you're doing. Very cool. Well, in the season and the spirit of Thanksgiving and looking forward to Christmas, I want to thank you guys for joining us in this podcasting journey. We're nearing a few months of doing this, and so I thank you for those who have been uh joining us along this journey. I've got a couple of thoughts of what you can be doing to just continue to help spread the word. Uh, one is build this into your weekly rhythm. We are committed to publish a new episode every Monday morning, way too early in the morning if you're on the East Coast, even earlier if you're on the West Coast, but way too early in the morning. So just put us in your rhythm. So maybe it's on your drive into work on Monday mornings, or maybe it's, you know, while you're cleaning the house on Monday mornings, whatever it is, build us into the rhythm. And if you haven't told your spouse that you're doing this, I would encourage you to tell your spouse that you're listening to this podcast. I'm not saying that you're gonna sit down and listen to it together. That's probably gonna be a rare situation. But if you're both committed to listening to it, it might give you some things to talk about as husband and wife. Thank you guys so much. Check us out on military wellnesscollective.com, Instagram, and wherever else you may find us. I love you guys.